Mountain View
Solitary Watch
On the Vital Importance of Supporting Incarcerated Journalists
For 27 years, I’ve lived the cruel reality that is incarceration. I’ve experienced the relentless hypervigilance it creates, the isolation, the feeling of being forgotten and not cared for. I know that the “average American” rarely sees or hears authentic accounts of what I experience. This blindness/deafness to...
Santa Was in Solitary and Jesus Got the Death Penalty
This is one of the first posts we ever published on Solitary Watch, thirteen years ago, and we now share it with our readers every year. Once a year, we also ask you to consider supporting the work we do: shining light into the darkest corners of our punishment system, and bringing a glimmer of hope and humanity to the people who reside there.
Seven Days in Solitary [12/21/22]
• Our Voices from Solitary series features a new piece by Dennis Hope, who was placed in solitary in Texas in 1994. After more than a quarter century in isolation and years of litigation, in January 2022, he asked the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of solitary “measured in decades, rather than weeks, months, or even years.” The case attracted national coverage. Shortly thereafter, the prisons department transferred Hope out of solitary, an experience he describes in his essay.
Time Is Running Out to Support Solitary Watch’s Work
Just ten days remain in our year-end fundraising effort. We come to you only once a year to ask for your support—and that support has never been more important than it is today. Right now, we have the opportunity to receive $20,000 in Matching Funds from NewsMatch, but only...
Voices from Solitary: “I’m Ready to be Treated Like a Human Again”
Dennis Hope was placed in solitary confinement in Texas in 1994. After more than a quarter century in isolation and years of litigation, in January 2022, he asked the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of solitary “measured in decades, rather than weeks, months, or even years.” The case attracted national coverage. Shortly thereafter, the prisons department transferred Hope out of solitary. In June, he wrote about his experience of that long-awaited but complicated transition in the essay below. Hope’s petition to the Supreme Court is being held in abeyance pending negotiations with the State of Texas. —Vaidya Gullapalli.
You Can Help End Torture in U.S. Prisons
Yesterday, in the latest of our new monthly dispatches, we called out solitary confinement for what it is: “the largest incidence of mass torture in the United States today.”. This massive assault on the minds, bodies, and spirits of tens of thousands of incarcerated human beings must be stopped—and...
Seven Days in Solitary [12/14/22]
• The latest in our series of monthly dispatches, The Word from Solitary Watch, addresses the question “What Will It Take to End Torture in U.S. Prisons?” The piece identifies the widespread use of solitary confinement as “the largest incidence of mass torture in the United States today,” and explores why and how the practice will eventually be ended.
The Word: What Will It Take to End Torture in U.S. Prisons?
Today, at least a dozen men incarcerated at Nevada’s Ely State Prison entered the 14th day of a hunger strike protesting “the continued and extended use of solitary confinement.” They are not the first to take a courageous and desperate stand against solitary confinement using the only means available to them, and they will surely not be the last.
Seven Days in Solitary [12/7/22]
• The Hill reports that four states voted last month to remove language that allows slavery as punishment for a crime from their state constitutions. Now, advocates are seeking to pass the Abolition Amendment, which would fully abolish slavery at the federal level. Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, told The Hill that incarcerated people are often forced to work under threat of punishments such as beatings and solitary confinement. “These are punishments that actually date back to antebellum slavery,” Tylek said. “People were placed in what was called ‘a hole’ or ‘the box’…colloquially, solitary confinement is still referred to as the hole or the box in prison.”
Five Unforgettable Stories from Inside Solitary Confinement
Years ago, when we were down in Louisiana working on a story about the notorious plantation prison called Angola, a man who had served nearly 20 years shared with us what he thought to be a common misconception about prisons. He knew that most people looked at the wall around the perimeter of a prison, and believed its purpose was to keep the incarcerated from escaping. But the wall “isn’t there to keep prisoners in,” he said. “It’s to keep the rest of you out.”
Show People in Solitary Confinement That They Are Not Forgotten
For tens of thousands of people locked away in U.S. prisons and jails, the extreme deprivation and isolation of solitary confinement causes unimaginable suffering. One person living in solitary described his existence to us as “a soul-destroying loneliness that never ends.”. In this context, even the smallest human connection...
Seven Days in Solitary [11/23/22]
• A Data for Progress poll found that a bipartisan majority of voters favor placing strict limits on solitary confinement. Voters indicated that they would support banning all forms of solitary confinement beyond four hours per day by a +32 point margin, with 78% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and 51% of Republicans expressing support. “This new poll shows that people across the country overwhelmingly support ending this torture,” said Jessica Sandoval, director of Unlock the Box, in a press release. “Now is the moment for lawmakers—from the President on down—to heed this call and act now.”
Support Solitary Watch Now and Your Donation Will Be Doubled by NewsMatch
This year, Solitary Watch has a chance to raise up to $20,000 in matching funds through NewsMatch, a collaborative fundraising movement to support independent, public service journalism like ours. We come to you once a year—and only once—to ask you to support the unique and vital work we do. With...
Seven Days in Solitary [11/16/2022]
• On November 16th at 6 PM EST, join Solitary Watch Director and Langeloth Grantee Partner Jean Casella in a discussion of new initiatives from Solitary Watch during the last Live with Langeloth of 2022. • Solitary Watch has released a new fact sheet that documents the psychological effects of...
New Fact Sheet Documents the Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement
Today, Solitary Watch is publishing the third in a new series of fact sheets offering facts, analysis, and resources on a variety of topics related to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and immigrant and juvenile facilities. This fact sheet, written by by Sara Rain Tree, covers the wide-ranging and devastating psychological effects of solitary.
Seven Days in Solitary [11/9/22]
• In an essay for our Voices from Solitary series, Raymond Williams writes about his experience as a 17-year-old incarcerated at Washington Corrections Center, where he was held in solitary confinement for a year. Now an adult incarcerated at the same facility, Williams makes the case that the legal system should redress the harms inflicted on people who were put in solitary as youth, including through post-conviction relief. Any assessment of such individuals, Williams writes, “should include consideration of how crippling such policies were.”
Voices from Solitary: In Solitary Confinement at Age 17 and Fighting for My Sanity
Raymond Williams, 42, is incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, Washington. Twenty-five years ago, he was sent to the same prison as a 17 year old. In this essay, Williams looks back on that first experience of being in adult prison. It was 1997, the year riots began in Washington prisons’ Intensive Management Units, and Williams found himself locked in solitary confinement for a year. He writes, “prison was never what I expected back then.” Instead, he says, the intense isolation was worse than anything he could have imagined. —Vaidya Gullapalli.
Seven Days in Solitary [11/2/2022]
• Yesterday, Solitary Watch announced grants available to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated journalists to report on solitary confinement and other harsh and inhumane prison conditions from the inside out. The Ridgeway Reporting Project honors the legacy of the late investigative journalist and Solitary Watch founder James Ridgeway. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2023. A printable description and application instructions, to be shared with incarcerated reporters, can be found here: Ridgeway Reporting Announcement Call for Submissions.
Ridgeway Reporting Project Offers Grants to Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Journalists
Solitary Watch is accepting proposals for grants to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated journalists, with the goal of expanding public awareness and understanding of solitary confinement and other dangerous or inhumane conditions of confinement in U.S. federal and state prisons, local and tribal jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile facilities. Through the generosity of the Vital Projects Fund and the James Ridgeway Memorial Fund, Solitary Watch will be awarding grants ranging from $500 to $2,500. (Please see below for deadlines and application instructions.)
The Word: Dismantle Prisons or Improve Conditions? As Someone Inside, I Know We Must Do Both
The good people who support change in our highly unjust criminal justice system often see a sharp divide between prison abolition and prison reform. Some who are dedicated to ending mass incarceration have been known to ignore or spurn what are commonly known as “conditions issues” like solitary confinement, prison medical and mental health care, and the availability of education and other programming behind bars.
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